Global Life

Yesterday was Global Day in Soonchunhyang University, which is an event for all the international students to represent their country, state, or culture. Students participating in a tent had their own activity/food. Almost all of the tents had food, but I saw some who showed a fortune answer to your wish. There was also a booth that painted beautiful images on fans and wrote calligraphy on them. It was quite eventful.

During Global Day, Mai and I were able to represent the Hmong people. Sadly, because Hmong people has no homeland, every one was quite confused about our tent. In the brochure it said Laos and “Heu-Mong,” but it was completely wrong, because Laos is not our original homeland. However, in a sense it is correct because to many of our elderly families, Laos is home to them. I so enjoyed having the opportunity to share who the Hmong people are. Also, surprisingly I met a few people who knew about the Hmong, which made me so happy to hear. I loved that during Global Day I was able to represent my people, the Hmong. I am also thankful that I so happened to have brought along my non-traditional modernized Hmong wear from home. Although my clothes were not traditional, at least they had a glimpse of what our clothes somewhat looks like. Also, speaking of my clothes, I decided to make a raffle drawing for my skirt. To my amazement, many people wrote their names in hopes of winning my skirt as their prize. I made the decision so that whoever wins can wear the skirt part as fashion to expose our Hmong patterns. This opens a way for people to hear more about the Hmong.

Also, tonight I had the greatest experience ever. I love it when I face such experiences. Tonight I had free dinner with my RA and other students here. The majority were Uzbekistan students, but the others were three Cambodians, one Mongolian, one Korean, One Japanese, and me, the Hmong-American girl. It was quite interesting to see how we all communicated with one another. All the Uzbekistan students spoke Uzbek or Russian. But, the Uzbekistan students spoke Korean to the Cambodian students and Mongolian. I spoke English to whomever was able to speak and understand English. A few spoke Japanese as well. It was amazing to hear the many languages in one single room. My heart was filled with great joy!

This is the neat thing in Global Village. There are so many students from literally almost all over the world. If I didn’t come to Korea, I would have never known about Uzbekistan or I would have never met any Mongolian person at all. It is amazing how we can all communicate in a specific language that is preferred about one another. I love this cultural diversity in Global Village. It surely is a great opportunity and experience for someone who wants to be submersed into different cultures/backgrounds.